Radiographers around New Zealand have withdrawn notices of industrial action after agreeing to resume negotiations with district health boards (DHBs) later this month.
MRTs (Medical Radiation Technologists) at each DHB had taken varying degrees of action since late February, from working to rule through to strikes -- including a three-day walk-off which halted some elective surgeries at Auckland Hospital in late March.
The radiographers' union Apex (the Association of Professionals and Executive Employees) is seeking a pay rise of 3 percent in a new collective agreement, which it says would reflect the 3.2 percent rise in funding which DHBs had received.
Apex negotiator Robyn Slater said the union had been in talks since September and had dropped industrial action ahead of meetings on April 20 and 21 as an "act of good faith", but there was no indication the DHBs were ready to settle.
"We're happy to go and meet with (the DHBs) as we've always been, ready to negotiate.
"Whether there is any influence in the fact that they have a settlement with the nurses, who were meant to negotiate behind us ... because that is out of the way basically and there is no flow-on to the nurses for anything we might negotiate, I don't know."
Ms Slater, a senior MRT at Hutt Valley DHB, said it was "very sad" Apex members had been pushed to take industrial action, but the union continued to have unanimous support.
"It is a last resort, basically when a negotiation is not a negotiation."
Hawke's Bay DHB chief operating officer Warrick Frater today thanked the community and staff for their cooperation as services had been reduced over the past 38 days.
He hoped the DHB could begin clearing its backlog of patients but urged people to visit their GP for minor issues to avoid overloading the hospital's emergency department.
